Brief Communication abstract
Nature Cell Biology 4, 888 - 893 (2002)
Published online: 21 October 2002 | doi:10.1038/ncb872
NF-
B2 p100 is a pro-apoptotic protein with anti-oncogenic function
Yongqing Wang1,4, Hongjuan Cui1,4, Allen Schroering1, Jane L. Ding1, William S. Lane2, Gaël McGill3, David E. Fisher4 & Han-Fei Ding1
Nuclear factor-
B (NF-
B) promotes cell survival by upregulating expression of anti-apoptotic genes, a process that is antagonized by inhibitors of
B (I
B) factors1. The only NF-
B family member known to be mutated in human cancer is NF-
B2 p100 (ref. 2), a factor with I
B activity. Here, we report the isolation from irradiated mouse tumour cells of a complex that induces caspase-8 activity in cell-free assays and identify p100 as an essential component of this complex. Expression of p100 profoundly sensitizes cells to death-receptor-mediated apoptosis through a pathway that is independent of I
B-like activity. The carboxyl terminus of p100 contains a death domain3 that is absent from all known tumour-derived mutants. This death domain mediates recruitment of p100 into death machinery complexes after ligand stimulation and is essential for p100's pro-apoptotic activity. p100 also sensitizes NIH3T3 cells to apoptosis triggered by oncogenic Ras, resulting in a marked inhibition of transformation that is rescued by suppression of endogenous caspase-8. These observations thus identify an I
B-independent apoptotic activity of NF-
B2 p100 and help explain its unique tumour suppressor role.
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Medical College of Ohio, 3035 Arlington Avenue, Toledo, OH 43614, USA
- Harvard Microchemistry and Proteomics Analysis Facility, Harvard University, 16 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Department of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Children's Hospital, 44 Binney Street, Boston, MA 02115, USA
- These authors contributed equally to this work.
Correspondence to: David E. Fisher4 e-mail: david_fisher@dfci.harvard.edu
Correspondence to: Han-Fei Ding1 e-mail: hding@mco.edu
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